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.Fury burned through her.“Reasonable? I shouldn’t worry about being forced out of my own body? You’re taking me over, telling me what I have to do, and I should just go along with it because you say so.How nice for you to live in your comfortable skin and know who and what you are.Claiming me doesn’t change your life at all, does it?”“It changes everything.” His voice was gentle with emotion—emotion he could feel because she’d given him that gift.He didn’t understand the enormity of what he had done by binding them together.He didn’t seem to even understand how her life would be affected.She would have to watch her family die.She would no longer be the person she’d always been.Even the chemistry of her body would be different.Everything about her would change, and she had no choice in the matter.Manolito would remain the man he’d always been, only he would have color and emotion restored to him.He might think it would all come right in time, but the change wasn’t happening to him.Adrenaline pumped through her body and with it—fury.How could someone else arbitrarily decide her life for her without her consent? Without asking her? Manolito.Her parents.Even her beloved grandparents.How could they just decide what was best for her and not only leave her out of the decisions, but even withhold knowledge?She leapt up before Manolito had an inkling she was going to move.There was no slight movement of her body to indicate a shift.She simply moved all at once, leaping to her feet and over the railing before he knew what she intended.Heart in his throat, he leapt after her.They were one hundred and fifty feet in the air.The fall would kill her.MaryAnn! He called her name even as he pursued, sending air to keep her floating as he streaked downward, but she was already on the ground, crouched low in a fighter’s stance.He slowed his descent to study her.Her hair was thick, long and wavy, gleaming a blue black as it cascaded down her shoulders and back.Her hands curled into claws, and the amazing bone structure in her face stood out beneath her taut skin.She backed away from him as he settled in front of her.“I want to go home.”He knew she was in good hands—his hands—yet her voice trembled and she looked so frightened he felt terrible.“I know you do, MaryAnn.I will get you back to your home as soon as I can.” And he realized it was true.For the first time, he realized she might need Seattle.She might need that cold, rainy city just as much as he needed the rain forest.“I promise, csitri, when I can fully leave the land of shadows, I will escort you home.”MaryAnn drew a deep, shuddering breath.“You promise?”“Absolutely.I give you my word, and I have never broken it in all my centuries of existence.” He held out his hand to her.“I am sorry I cannot understand what you are going through.” If she opened her mind to his, he could feel her emotions, not just visibly see them, but she held tight to her resistance.MaryAnn looked around her.“I don’t know how I got here.” She looked up at the top of the canopy.She couldn’t even see the deck he had constructed.“How did I do that, Manolito?”He kept his hand extended to her.The leaves were rustling around them.Shadows moved.He took a step closer to her.MaryAnn put her hand in his, and he pulled her into his arms and took to the air, taking them to the protection of the deck he’d woven.She stood on the platform, her arms around his neck, her face buried against his shoulder, trembling with the truth.“The truth,” he murmured softly.MaryAnn jerked away from him.She knew it was the truth.She had been that infant someone had hunted through a forest and nearly killed.Her parents had hidden the truth from her for years.The foundation of her solid world was shaken, and she needed to find a way to quiet the growing thing inside of her so she could come to terms with what was happening, but she didn’t want Manolito to throw the truth of her life in her face.Manolito looked around at the various leaves.Some broad, some lacy, some small and others large, all a dull silver instead of gleaming as they should.The safeguards were in place, keeping out all enemies so he could spend time with her, trying to ease her into his world.He had intended to bring her fully over so she, too, was wholly Karpatii.Instead, he had forced her to bare her soul to his, to risk everything for him.Now he needed to give something back.Something of equal value.She had given him truth; he could do no less.He paced restlessly across the small confines of space.“You gave me truth, MaryAnn, when it cost you.I have something to tell you.Something that shames me, and not just me, my entire family.What is inside you is noble and strong, and I doubt you need fear it.I have no such secret to share with you, although I wish it were so.”She blinked away tears and looked at him, somewhat shocked.He appeared nervous.It was the last thing she expected of a man as confident as Manolito.Her natural compassion rushed through her, and she put her hand on his arm, flooding him with warmth and encouragement.“Do not aid me in this,” he protested, shaking his head, but once again she had opened her mind to his, surrounding him with the brilliant colors and her soothing personality.“I do not deserve it.”He didn’t deserve to be so smug about claiming her, but she pushed that sudden thought down and gave him a look of support.Manolito continued to pace, so she sank down onto the flowers, surprised that once again they released their fragrance, filling the air with soothing scent.Drawing up her knees, she wrapped her arms around them and rested her chin on top, waiting for him to continue.Manolito took a slow, careful look around and wove more safeguards, this time enclosing them within a sound barrier to give them even more privacy.“Sometimes the forest has ears.”She nodded, not interrupting, but somewhere in the pit of her stomach she was beginning to believe that what he was going to tell her was of monumental importance to both of them.Manolito rested his elbows on the railing and looked down at the forest floor beneath them.“My family was always a little different from most of the other warriors around us.For one thing, most families never have children within fifty to a hundred years of one another.Of course it happens, but rarely
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